Ever since Britain’s Prince Harry created a stir a few years ago by holing up as a jackeroo on the 16,000-hectare Tooloombilla station in Queensland, Australian station holidays have rocketed in popularity.
“Visitor numbers have doubled every year for the last few years,” says Drew Kluska, Managing Director of Outback Encounter, a South Australian-based company that custom-designs luxury escapes to undiscovered areas of Australia
But not all travellers are willing to rough it. Fortunately, all around Australia, there are many rural properties that provide luxury accommodation for those who just aren’t keen to forego the comforts of city living. While the early stockmen pioneers sheltered in rudimentary homesteads knocked together with timber and corrugated iron, and drank billy tea from dented metal cups, today’s visitors enjoy air-conditioned rooms, internet connections, flat-screen displays, wet-edged pools and sundecks, fine cuisine, champagne and polished designer stainless steel tea mugs.
Sometimes a visit to the tiny communities within Australia’s heartland - the social hubs of a district which often consist of little more than a pub and a petrol pump (if you’re lucky) - can be a journey back in time. But my experience was quite the opposite this week, as I delved into the depths of one of the Darling River’s youngest settlement’s – Tilpa.
The Eyre Peninsula is seductively secluded, a dream destination with fabulous seafood, unique ocean activities and spectacular scenery with hidden coves, bays and beaches, wild headlands and dramatic limestone cliffs.
With time a precious commodity, flying here is great as it’s just a 45-minute flight from Adelaide to Port Lincoln. With your hire car already in place, the brand new Sea SA vehicle/passenger ferry will be a great choice from early 2011, carrying you across the Spencer Gulf between Wallaroo on the Yorke Peninsula and Lucky Bay in comfort in just two hours.
There are a few clever puns that could be used for the introduction to my first ever ‘ballooning’ story. Instead, I’ll simply urge – do it!
Travelling skyward in a rather large wicker basket, below a colourful material balloon, has been one of my adventure fantasies for some time. Perhaps I was inspired by one of those 1950s movies where the cast ends up in a food fight in a foreign country whilst racing around the world in mayhem, what was that movie called? …I’m sure it had Tony Curtis in it…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Three locals walk into a bar, while a musician, who’s travelled 800 kilometres of desolate highways, through drought and flood, and mining towns miles from anywhere, is belting out the John Denver classic “Some days are diamonds…”
In any usual outback pub the timeless country tune would ignite swoons of passionate chorus' as punters reminisced, returning to a time when life was simpler, and the great country crooner was still alive.
But we’re in White Cliffs, in northwest New South Wales. And one bold patron raises his voice, heckling the poor guitarist with a cheeky glint in his eye. “Oi! It’s opals.”
AAOD’s three proudest finds are Matilda (Diamantinasaurus matildae), Banjo (Australovenator wintonensis) and Clancy (Wintonatitan Wattsi). Clancy, a giant plant-eating sauropod, was discovered in 1972, but the amazing find wasn’t released to the public until 2009. Also announced two years ago, Matilda is a sauropod, while Banjo is Australia’s most complete carnivorous theropod.
According to Freddy, Banjo would have weighed around 500-600 kilograms. Built for speed and agility, he had hollow bones like a bird. “And he would have run like an emu, using momentum from his middle big toe,” he says.
Anyone who has ever visited Broken Hill has seen, or perhaps visited “The Palace”….formerly known as ‘Marios’… It’s a stunning old pub on the west end of the main street and you can’t help but stop and stare at this massive three story icon in the outback.
If you haven’t been to the Silver City, what many people don’t know, is that somewhere in your viewing history, you’ve still probably seen the Palace without knowing it… The pub was famously part of the adventure in Priscilla Queen of the Desert! And it’s been the backdrop of many a rock music video…
Sitting in my hire car, one shaky breathe before tears, my dinosaur hunt is turning into more of an adventure than anticipated. I’m just outside Winton, and less than two kilometres into the 12 kilometre gravel road leading through scenic grassy planes, up a rugged, prehistoric, rock plateau to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AAOD) Museum of Natural History.
There’s been an inch of rain overnight and the creek crossing, and muddy slip beyond, is intimidating my tiny Kia, which I’d been strictly instructed not to drive on dirt roads. I wade through the crossing by foot, only to find a second muddy pit just over the rise. This is it, I think, my adventure is over before it even began.
Walking into the iconic North Gregory Hotel in the outback Queensland town of Winton, there is little left of its once majestic heritage and history. I’m told this North Gregory is the fourth of its name on this site, with the previous three all ravaged by fire.
The original hotel stood from 1879 to 1900, and is famous as the location for the first live performance of Australia’s honorary national anthem, Banjo Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda, in 1895.
To find out the story behind how the first performance came about, I wander across the road to visit the Waltzing Matilda Centre.
One of the best things about Broken Hill is the art.
The place may be smack bang in the middle of the desert, and be more at peace with a mining A-frame across the horizon, than Pro Hart’s gallery collection… but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of culture. In fact it’s quite the opposite.
Not only is the Silver City a fine breeding ground for artists, but like those incredible cities you visit overseas which leave your neck sore from gazing at high sculptures and historic murals, it has a large cache of interesting, rich public art.
